Constraint for template matching in decoder side motion derivation and refinement

ABSTRACT

A method of video decoding in a decoder is described. A coded video bit stream is received. A template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream is determined in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction. A first region of the template is determined to be overlapping with a second block that is decoded prior to the first block. Further, a second region of the template is determined by subtracting the first region from the template. Motion information of the first block is derived using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This present disclosure claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/696,536, “Constraint for Template Matching in Decoder Side Motion Derivation and Refinement,” filed on Jul. 11, 2018, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure describes embodiments generally related to video coding and decoding.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

Video coding and decoding can be performed using inter-picture prediction with motion compensation. Uncompressed digital video can include a series of pictures, each picture having a spatial dimension of, for example, 1920×1080 luminance samples and associated chrominance samples. The series of pictures can have a fixed or variable picture rate (informally also known as frame rate), of, for example 60 pictures per second or 60 Hz. Uncompressed video has significant bitrate requirements. For example, 1080p60 4:2:0 video at 8 bit per sample (1920×1080 luminance sample resolution at 60 Hz frame rate) requires close to 1.5 Gbit/s bandwidth. An hour of such video requires more than 600 GBytes of storage space.

One purpose of video coding and decoding can be the reduction of redundancy in the input video signal, through compression. Compression can help reduce the aforementioned bandwidth or storage space requirements, in some cases by two orders of magnitude or more. Both lossless and lossy compression, as well as a combination thereof can be employed. Lossless compression refers to techniques where an exact copy of the original signal can be reconstructed from the compressed original signal. When using lossy compression, the reconstructed signal may not be identical to the original signal, but the distortion between original and reconstructed signals is small enough to make the reconstructed signal useful for the intended application. In the case of video, lossy compression is widely employed. The amount of distortion tolerated depends on the application; for example, users of certain consumer streaming applications may tolerate higher distortion than users of television distribution applications. The compression ratio achievable can reflect that: higher allowable/tolerable distortion can yield higher compression ratios.

Motion compensation can be a lossy compression technique and can relate to techniques where a block of sample data from a previously reconstructed picture or part thereof (reference picture), after being spatially shifted in a direction indicated by a motion vector (MV henceforth), is used for the prediction of a newly reconstructed picture or picture part. In some cases, the reference picture can be the same as the picture currently under reconstruction. MVs can have two dimensions X and Y, or three dimensions, the third being an indication of the reference picture in use (the latter, indirectly, can be a time dimension).

In some video compression techniques, an MV applicable to a certain area of sample data can be predicted from other MVs, for example from those related to another area of sample data spatially adjacent to the area under reconstruction, and preceding that MV in decoding order. Doing so can substantially reduce the amount of data required for coding the MV, thereby removing redundancy and increasing compression. MV prediction can work effectively, for example, because when coding an input video signal derived from a camera (known as natural video) there is a statistical likelihood that areas larger than the area to which a single MV is applicable move in a similar direction and, therefore, can in some cases be predicted using a similar motion vector derived from MVs of neighboring area. That results in the MV found for a given area to be similar or the same as the MV predicted from the surrounding MVs, and that in turn can be represented, after entropy coding, in a smaller number of bits than what would be used if coding the MV directly. In some cases, MV prediction can be an example of lossless compression of a signal (namely: the MVs) derived from the original signal (namely: the sample stream). In other cases, MV prediction itself can be lossy, for example because of rounding errors when calculating a predictor from several surrounding MVs.

Various MV prediction mechanisms are described in H.265/HEVC (ITU-T Rec. H.265, “High Efficiency Video Coding”, December 2016). Out of the many MV prediction mechanisms that H.265 offers, described here is a technique henceforth referred to as “spatial merge”.

Referring to FIG. 1, a current block (101) comprises samples that have been found by the encoder during the motion search process to be predictable from a previous block of the same size that has been spatially shifted. Instead of coding that MV directly, the MV can be derived from metadata associated with one or more reference pictures, for example from the most recent (in decoding order) reference picture, using the MV associated with either one of five surrounding samples, denoted A0, A1, and B0, B1, B2 (102 through 106, respectively). In H.265, the MV prediction can use predictors from the same reference picture that the neighboring block is using.

SUMMARY

Aspects of the disclosure provide method and apparatus for video encoding/decoding. In some examples, an apparatus includes processing circuitry for video decoding.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for video decoding in a decoder is provided. In the method, a coded bitstream is received. A template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream is determined in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction. A first region of the template that overlaps with a second block is determined. The second block is decoded prior to the first block. Further, a second region of the template is determined by subtracting the first region from the template. Motion information of the first block is derived using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an apparatus for video coding is provided. The apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to receive a coded bitstream. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine a template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine a first region of the template that overlaps with a second block that is decoded prior to the first block. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine a second region of the template by subtracting the first region from the template. The processing circuitry is further configured to derive motion information of the first block using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region.

Aspects of the disclosure also provide a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which when executed by a computer for video decoding cause the computer to perform a method for video decoding. In the method, a coded bitstream is received. A template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream is determined in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction. A first region of the template that overlaps with a second block is determined. The second block is decoded prior to the first block. Further, a second region of the template is determined by subtracting the first region from the template. Motion information of the first block is derived using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features, the nature, and various advantages of the disclosed subject matter will be more apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a current block and its surrounding spatial merge candidates in accordance with H.265.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a simplified block diagram of a communication system (200) in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a simplified block diagram of a communication system (300) in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a simplified block diagram of a decoder in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a simplified block diagram of an encoder in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of an encoder in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a decoder in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a current block and its surrounding merge candidates in some examples.

FIG. 9 shows an example of bilateral matching according to some embodiments.

FIG. 10 shows an example of template matching according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 shows examples of a general pipeline structure and a pipeline delay structure.

FIG. 12 shows an example of DMVR that is based on bilateral template matching.

FIGS. 13A and 13B show examples of spatial relationship between a current block and its previous block.

FIG. 14 shows an example of constrained neighboring regions for template matching.

FIG. 15 shows a flow chart outlining a process according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of a computer system in accordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a communication system (200) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication system (200) includes a plurality of terminal devices that can communicate with each other, via, for example, a network (250). For example, the communication system (200) includes a first pair of terminal devices (210) and (220) interconnected via the network (250). In the FIG. 2 example, the first pair of terminal devices (210) and (220) performs unidirectional transmission of data. For example, the terminal device (210) may code video data (e.g., a stream of video pictures that are captured by the terminal device (210)) for transmission to the other terminal device (220) via the network (250). The encoded video data can be transmitted in the form of one or more coded video bit streams. The terminal device (220) may receive the coded video data from the network (250), decode the coded video data to recover the video pictures and display video pictures according to the recovered video data. Unidirectional data transmission may be common in media serving applications and the like.

In another example, the communication system (200) includes a second pair of terminal devices (230) and (240) that performs bidirectional transmission of coded video data that may occur, for example, during videoconferencing. For bidirectional transmission of data, in an example, each terminal device of the terminal devices (230) and (240) may code video data (e.g., a stream of video pictures that are captured by the terminal device) for transmission to the other terminal device of the terminal devices (230) and (240) via the network (250). Each terminal device of the terminal devices (230) and (240) also may receive the coded video data transmitted by the other terminal device of the terminal devices (230) and (240), and may decode the coded video data to recover the video pictures and may display video pictures at an accessible display device according to the recovered video data.

In the FIG. 2 example, the terminal devices (210), (220), (230) and (240) may be illustrated as servers, personal computers and smart phones but the principles of the present disclosure may be not so limited. Embodiments of the present disclosure find application with laptop computers, tablet computers, media players and/or dedicated video conferencing equipment. The network (250) represents any number of networks that convey coded video data among the terminal devices (210), (220), (230) and (240), including for example wireline (wired) and/or wireless communication networks. The communication network (250) may exchange data in circuit-switched and/or packet-switched channels. Representative networks include telecommunications networks, local area networks, wide area networks and/or the Internet. For the purposes of the present discussion, the architecture and topology of the network (250) may be immaterial to the operation of the present disclosure unless explained herein below.

FIG. 3 illustrates, as an example for an application for the disclosed subject matter, the placement of a video encoder and a video decoder in a streaming environment. The disclosed subject matter can be equally applicable to other video enabled applications, including, for example, video conferencing, digital TV, storing of compressed video on digital media including CD, DVD, memory stick and the like, and so on.

A streaming system may include a capture subsystem (313), that can include a video source (301), for example a digital camera, creating for example a stream of video pictures (302) that are uncompressed. In an example, the stream of video pictures (302) includes samples that are taken by the digital camera. The stream of video pictures (302), depicted as a bold line to emphasize a high data volume when compared to encoded video data (304) (or coded video bit streams), can be processed by an electronic device (320) that includes a video encoder (303) coupled to the video source (301). The video encoder (303) can include hardware, software, or a combination thereof to enable or implement aspects of the disclosed subject matter as described in more detail below. The encoded video data (304) (or encoded video bit stream (304)), depicted as a thin line to emphasize the lower data volume when compared to the stream of video pictures (302), can be stored on a streaming server (305) for future use. One or more streaming client subsystems, such as client subsystems (306) and (308) in FIG. 3 can access the streaming server (305) to retrieve copies (307) and (309) of the encoded video data (304). A client subsystem (306) can include a video decoder (310), for example, in an electronic device (330). The video decoder (310) decodes the incoming copy (307) of the encoded video data and creates an outgoing stream of video pictures (311) that can be rendered on a display (312) (e.g., display screen) or other rendering device (not depicted). In some streaming systems, the encoded video data (304), (307), and (309) (e.g., video bit streams) can be encoded according to certain video coding/compression standards. Examples of those standards include ITU-T Recommendation H.265. In an example, a video coding standard under development is informally known as Versatile Video Coding (VVC). The disclosed subject matter may be used in the context of VVC.

It is noted that the electronic devices (320) and (330) can include other components (not shown). For example, the electronic device (320) can include a video decoder (not shown) and the electronic device (330) can include a video encoder (not shown) as well.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a video decoder (410) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The video decoder (410) can be included in an electronic device (430). The electronic device (430) can include a receiver (431) (e.g., receiving circuitry). The video decoder (410) can be used in the place of the video decoder (310) in the FIG. 3 example.

The receiver (431) may receive one or more coded video sequences to be decoded by the video decoder (410); in the same or another embodiment, one coded video sequence at a time, where the decoding of each coded video sequence is independent from other coded video sequences. The coded video sequence may be received from a channel (401), which may be a hardware/software link to a storage device which stores the encoded video data. The receiver (431) may receive the encoded video data with other data, for example, coded audio data and/or ancillary data streams, that may be forwarded to their respective using entities (not depicted). The receiver (431) may separate the coded video sequence from the other data. To combat network jitter, a buffer memory (415) may be coupled in between the receiver (431) and an entropy decoder/parser (420) (“parser (420)” henceforth). In certain applications, the buffer memory (415) is part of the video decoder (410). In others, it can be outside of the video decoder (410) (not depicted). In still others, there can be a buffer memory (not depicted) outside of the video decoder (410), for example to combat network jitter, and in addition another buffer memory (415) inside the video decoder (410), for example to handle playout timing. When the receiver (431) is receiving data from a store/forward device of sufficient bandwidth and controllability, or from an isosynchronous network, the buffer memory (415) may not be needed, or can be small. For use on best effort packet networks such as the Internet, the buffer memory (415) may be required, can be comparatively large and can be advantageously of adaptive size, and may at least partially be implemented in an operating system or similar elements (not depicted) outside of the video decoder (410).

The video decoder (410) may include the parser (420) to reconstruct symbols (421) from the coded video sequence. Categories of those symbols include information used to manage operation of the video decoder (410), and potentially information to control a rendering device such as a render device (412) (e.g., a display screen) that is not an integral part of the electronic device (430) but can be coupled to the electronic device (430), as was shown in FIG. 4. The control information for the rendering device(s) may be in the form of Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI messages) or Video Usability Information (VUI) parameter set fragments (not depicted). The parser (420) may parse/entropy-decode the coded video sequence that is received. The coding of the coded video sequence can be in accordance with a video coding technology or standard, and can follow various principles, including variable length coding, Huffman coding, arithmetic coding with or without context sensitivity, and so forth. The parser (420) may extract from the coded video sequence, a set of subgroup parameters for at least one of the subgroups of pixels in the video decoder, based upon at least one parameter corresponding to the group. Subgroups can include Groups of Pictures (GOPs), pictures, tiles, slices, macroblocks, Coding Units (CUs), blocks, Transform Units (TUs), Prediction Units (PUs) and so forth. The parser (420) may also extract from the coded video sequence information such as transform coefficients, quantizer parameter values, motion vectors, and so forth.

The parser (420) may perform an entropy decoding/parsing operation on the video sequence received from the buffer memory (415), so as to create symbols (421).

Reconstruction of the symbols (421) can involve multiple different units depending on the type of the coded video picture or parts thereof (such as: inter and intra picture, inter and intra block), and other factors. Which units are involved, and how, can be controlled by the subgroup control information that was parsed from the coded video sequence by the parser (420). The flow of such subgroup control information between the parser (420) and the multiple units below is not depicted for clarity.

Beyond the functional blocks already mentioned, the video decoder (410) can be conceptually subdivided into a number of functional units as described below. In a practical implementation operating under commercial constraints, many of these units interact closely with each other and can, at least partly, be integrated into each other. However, for the purpose of describing the disclosed subject matter, the conceptual subdivision into the functional units below is appropriate.

A first unit is the scaler/inverse transform unit (451). The scaler/inverse transform unit (451) receives a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including which transform to use, block size, quantization factor, quantization scaling matrices, etc. as symbol(s) (421) from the parser (420). The scaler/inverse transform unit (451) can output blocks comprising sample values, which can be input into aggregator (455).

In some cases, the output samples of the scaler/inverse transform (451) can pertain to an intra coded block; that is: a block that is not using predictive information from previously reconstructed pictures, but can use predictive information from previously reconstructed parts of the current picture. Such predictive information can be provided by an intra picture prediction unit (452). In some cases, the intra picture prediction unit (452) generates a block of the same size and shape of the block under reconstruction, using surrounding already reconstructed information fetched from the current picture buffer (458). The current picture buffer (458) buffers, for example, partly reconstructed current picture and/or fully reconstructed current picture. The aggregator (455), in some cases, adds, on a per sample basis, the prediction information the intra prediction unit (452) has generated to the output sample information as provided by the scaler/inverse transform unit (451).

In other cases, the output samples of the scaler/inverse transform unit (451) can pertain to an inter coded, and potentially motion compensated block. In such a case, a motion compensation prediction unit (453) can access reference picture memory (457) to fetch samples used for prediction. After motion compensating the fetched samples in accordance with the symbols (421) pertaining to the block, these samples can be added by the aggregator (455) to the output of the scaler/inverse transform unit (451) (in this case called the residual samples or residual signal) so as to generate output sample information. The addresses within the reference picture memory (457) from where the motion compensation prediction unit (453) fetches prediction samples can be controlled by motion vectors, available to the motion compensation prediction unit (453) in the form of symbols (421) that can have, for example X, Y, and reference picture components. Motion compensation also can include interpolation of sample values as fetched from the reference picture memory (457) when sub-sample exact motion vectors are in use, motion vector prediction mechanisms, and so forth.

The output samples of the aggregator (455) can be subject to various loop filtering techniques in the loop filter unit (456). Video compression technologies can include in-loop filter technologies that are controlled by parameters included in the coded video sequence (also referred to as coded video bit stream) and made available to the loop filter unit (456) as symbols (421) from the parser (420), but can also be responsive to meta-information obtained during the decoding of previous (in decoding order) parts of the coded picture or coded video sequence, as well as responsive to previously reconstructed and loop-filtered sample values.

The output of the loop filter unit (456) can be a sample stream that can be output to the render device (412) as well as stored in the reference picture memory (457) for use in future inter-picture prediction.

Certain coded pictures, once fully reconstructed, can be used as reference pictures for future prediction. For example, once a coded picture corresponding to a current picture is fully reconstructed and the coded picture has been identified as a reference picture (by, for example, the parser (420)), the current picture buffer (458) can become a part of the reference picture memory (457), and a fresh current picture buffer can be reallocated before commencing the reconstruction of the following coded picture.

The video decoder (410) may perform decoding operations according to a predetermined video compression technology in a standard, such as ITU-T Rec. H.265. The coded video sequence may conform to a syntax specified by the video compression technology or standard being used, in the sense that the coded video sequence adheres to both the syntax of the video compression technology or standard and the profiles as documented in the video compression technology or standard. Specifically, a profile can select certain tools as the only tools available for use under that profile from all the tools available in the video compression technology or standard. Also necessary for compliance can be that the complexity of the coded video sequence is within bounds as defined by the level of the video compression technology or standard. In some cases, levels restrict the maximum picture size, maximum frame rate, maximum reconstruction sample rate (measured in, for example megasamples per second), maximum reference picture size, and so on. Limits set by levels can, in some cases, be further restricted through Hypothetical Reference Decoder (HRD) specifications and metadata for HRD buffer management signaled in the coded video sequence.

In an embodiment, the receiver (431) may receive additional (redundant) data with the encoded video. The additional data may be included as part of the coded video sequence(s). The additional data may be used by the video decoder (410) to properly decode the data and/or to more accurately reconstruct the original video data. Additional data can be in the form of, for example, temporal, spatial, or signal noise ratio (SNR) enhancement layers, redundant slices, redundant pictures, forward error correction codes, and so on.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a video encoder (503) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The video encoder (503) is included in an electronic device (520). The electronic device (520) includes a transmitter (540) (e.g., transmitting circuitry). The video encoder (503) can be used in the place of the video encoder (303) in the FIG. 3 example.

The video encoder (503) may receive video samples from a video source (501) (that is not part of the electronic device (520) in the FIG. 5 example) that may capture video image(s) to be coded by the video encoder (503). In another example, the video source (501) is a part of the electronic device (520).

The video source (501) may provide the source video sequence to be coded by the video encoder (503) in the form of a digital video sample stream that can be of any suitable bit depth (for example: 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, . . . ), any colorspace (for example, BT.601 Y CrCB, RGB, . . . ), and any suitable sampling structure (for example Y CrCb 4:2:0, Y CrCb 4:4:4). In a media serving system, the video source (501) may be a storage device storing previously prepared video. In a videoconferencing system, the video source (501) may be a camera that captures local image information as a video sequence. Video data may be provided as a plurality of individual pictures that impart motion when viewed in sequence. The pictures themselves may be organized as a spatial array of pixels, wherein each pixel can comprise one or more samples depending on the sampling structure, color space, etc. in use. A person skilled in the art can readily understand the relationship between pixels and samples. The description below focuses on samples.

According to an embodiment, the video encoder (503) may code and compress the pictures of the source video sequence into a coded video sequence (543) in real time or under any other time constraints as required by the application. Enforcing appropriate coding speed is one function of a controller (550). In some embodiments, the controller (550) controls other functional units as described below and is functionally coupled to the other functional units. The coupling is not depicted for clarity. Parameters set by the controller (550) can include rate control related parameters (picture skip, quantizer, lambda value of rate-distortion optimization techniques, . . . ), picture size, group of pictures (GOP) layout, maximum motion vector search range, and so forth. The controller (550) can be configured to have other suitable functions that pertain to the video encoder (503) optimized for a certain system design.

In some embodiments, the video encoder (503) is configured to operate in a coding loop. As an oversimplified description, in an example, the coding loop can include a source coder (530) (e.g., responsible for creating symbols, such as a symbol stream, based on an input picture to be coded, and a reference picture(s)), and a (local) decoder (533) embedded in the video encoder (503). The decoder (533) reconstructs the symbols to create the sample data in a similar manner as a (remote) decoder also would create (as any compression between symbols and coded video bit stream is lossless in the video compression technologies considered in the disclosed subject matter). The reconstructed sample stream (sample data) is input to the reference picture memory (534). As the decoding of a symbol stream leads to bit-exact results independent of decoder location (local or remote), the content in the reference picture memory (534) is also bit exact between the local encoder and remote encoder. In other words, the prediction part of an encoder “sees” as reference picture samples exactly the same sample values as a decoder would “see” when using prediction during decoding. This fundamental principle of reference picture synchronicity (and resulting drift, if synchronicity cannot be maintained, for example because of channel errors) is used in some related arts as well.

The operation of the “local” decoder (533) can be the same as of a “remote” decoder, such as the video decoder (410), which has already been described in detail above in conjunction with FIG. 4. Briefly referring also to FIG. 4, however, as symbols are available and encoding/decoding of symbols to a coded video sequence by an entropy coder (545) and the parser (420) can be lossless, the entropy decoding parts of the video decoder (410), including the buffer memory (415), and parser (420) may not be fully implemented in the local decoder (533).

An observation that can be made at this point is that any decoder technology except the parsing/entropy decoding that is present in a decoder also necessarily needs to be present, in substantially identical functional form, in a corresponding encoder. For this reason, the disclosed subject matter focuses on decoder operation. The description of encoder technologies can be abbreviated as they are the inverse of the comprehensively described decoder technologies. Only in certain areas a more detail description is required and provided below.

During operation, in some examples, the source coder (530) may perform motion compensated predictive coding, which codes an input picture predictively with reference to one or more previously-coded picture from the video sequence that were designated as “reference pictures”. In this manner, the coding engine (532) codes differences between pixel blocks of an input picture and pixel blocks of reference picture(s) that may be selected as prediction reference(s) to the input picture.

The local video decoder (533) may decode coded video data of pictures that may be designated as reference pictures, based on symbols created by the source coder (530). Operations of the coding engine (532) may advantageously be lossy processes. When the coded video data may be decoded at a video decoder (not shown in FIG. 5), the reconstructed video sequence typically may be a replica of the source video sequence with some errors. The local video decoder (533) replicates decoding processes that may be performed by the video decoder on reference pictures and may cause reconstructed reference pictures to be stored in the reference picture cache (534). In this manner, the video encoder (503) may store copies of reconstructed reference pictures locally that have common content as the reconstructed reference pictures that will be obtained by a far-end video decoder (absent transmission errors).

The predictor (535) may perform prediction searches for the coding engine (532). That is, for a new picture to be coded, the predictor (535) may search the reference picture memory (534) for sample data (as candidate reference pixel blocks) or certain metadata such as reference picture motion vectors, block shapes, and so on, that may serve as an appropriate prediction reference for the new pictures. The predictor (535) may operate on a sample block-by-pixel block basis to find appropriate prediction references. In some cases, as determined by search results obtained by the predictor (535), an input picture may have prediction references drawn from multiple reference pictures stored in the reference picture memory (534).

The controller (550) may manage coding operations of the source coder (530), including, for example, setting of parameters and subgroup parameters used for encoding the video data.

Output of all aforementioned functional units may be subjected to entropy coding in the entropy coder (545). The entropy coder (545) translates the symbols as generated by the various functional units into a coded video sequence, by lossless compressing the symbols according to technologies such as Huffman coding, variable length coding, arithmetic coding, and so forth.

The transmitter (540) may buffer the coded video sequence(s) as created by the entropy coder (545) to prepare for transmission via a communication channel (560), which may be a hardware/software link to a storage device which would store the encoded video data. The transmitter (540) may merge coded video data from the video coder (503) with other data to be transmitted, for example, coded audio data and/or ancillary data streams (sources not shown).

The controller (550) may manage operation of the video encoder (503). During coding, the controller (550) may assign to each coded picture a certain coded picture type, which may affect the coding techniques that may be applied to the respective picture. For example, pictures often may be assigned as one of the following picture types:

An Intra Picture (I picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded without using any other picture in the sequence as a source of prediction. Some video codecs allow for different types of intra pictures, including, for example Independent Decoder Refresh (“IDR”) Pictures. A person skilled in the art is aware of those variants of I pictures and their respective applications and features.

A predictive picture (P picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded using intra prediction or inter prediction using at most one motion vector and reference index to predict the sample values of each block.

A bi-directionally predictive picture (B Picture) may be one that may be coded and decoded using intra prediction or inter prediction using at most two motion vectors and reference indices to predict the sample values of each block. Similarly, multiple-predictive pictures can use more than two reference pictures and associated metadata for the reconstruction of a single block.

Source pictures commonly may be subdivided spatially into a plurality of sample blocks (for example, blocks of 4×4, 8×8, 4×8, or 16×16 samples each) and coded on a block-by-block basis. Blocks may be coded predictively with reference to other (already coded) blocks as determined by the coding assignment applied to the blocks' respective pictures. For example, blocks of I pictures may be coded non-predictively or they may be coded predictively with reference to already coded blocks of the same picture (spatial prediction or intra prediction). Pixel blocks of P pictures may be coded predictively, via spatial prediction or via temporal prediction with reference to one previously coded reference picture. Blocks of B pictures may be coded predictively, via spatial prediction or via temporal prediction with reference to one or two previously coded reference pictures.

The video encoder (503) may perform coding operations according to a predetermined video coding technology or standard, such as ITU-T Rec. H.265. In its operation, the video encoder (503) may perform various compression operations, including predictive coding operations that exploit temporal and spatial redundancies in the input video sequence. The coded video data, therefore, may conform to a syntax specified by the video coding technology or standard being used.

In an embodiment, the transmitter (540) may transmit additional data with the encoded video. The source coder (530) may include such data as part of the coded video sequence. Additional data may comprise temporal/spatial/SNR enhancement layers, other forms of redundant data such as redundant pictures and slices, SEI messages, VUI parameter set fragments, and so on.

A video may be captured as a plurality of source pictures (video pictures) in a temporal sequence. Intra-picture prediction (often abbreviated to intra prediction) makes use of spatial correlation in a given picture, and inter-picture prediction makes uses of the (temporal or other) correlation between the pictures. In an example, a specific picture under encoding/decoding, which is referred to as a current picture, is partitioned into blocks. When a block in the current picture is similar to a reference block in a previously coded and still buffered reference picture in the video, the block in the current picture can be coded by a vector that is referred to as a motion vector. The motion vector points to the reference block in the reference picture, and can have a third dimension identifying the reference picture, in case multiple reference pictures are in use.

In some embodiments, a bi-prediction technique can be used in the inter-picture prediction. According to the bi-prediction technique, two reference pictures, such as a first reference picture and a second reference picture that are both prior in decoding order to the current picture in the video (but may be in the past and future, respectively, in display order) are used. A block in the current picture can be coded by a first motion vector that points to a first reference block in the first reference picture, and a second motion vector that points to a second reference block in the second reference picture. The block can be predicted by a combination of the first reference block and the second reference block.

Further, a merge mode technique can be used in the inter-picture prediction to improve coding efficiency.

According to some embodiments of the disclosure, predictions, such as inter-picture predictions and intra-picture predictions are performed in the unit of blocks. For example, according to the HEVC standard, a picture in a sequence of video pictures is partitioned into coding tree units (CTU) for compression, the CTUs in a picture have the same size, such as 64×64 pixels, 32×32 pixels, or 16×16 pixels. In general, a CTU includes three coding tree blocks (CTBs), which are one luma CTB and two chroma CTBs. Each CTU can be recursively quadtree split into one or multiple coding units (CUs). For example, a CTU of 64×64 pixels can be split into one CU of 64×64 pixels, or 4 CUs of 32×32 pixels, or 16 CUs of 16×16 pixels. In an example, each CU is analyzed to determine a prediction type for the CU, such as an inter prediction type or an intra prediction type. The CU is split into one or more prediction units (PUs) depending on the temporal and/or spatial predictability. Generally, each PU includes a luma prediction block (PB), and two chroma PBs. In an embodiment, a prediction operation in coding (encoding/decoding) is performed in the unit of a prediction block. Using a luma prediction block as an example of a prediction block, the prediction block includes a matrix of values (e.g., luma values) for pixels, such as 8×8 pixels, 16×16 pixels, 8×16 pixels, 16×8 pixels, and the like.

FIG. 6 shows a diagram of a video encoder (603) according to another embodiment of the disclosure. The video encoder (603) is configured to receive a processing block (e.g., a prediction block) of sample values within a current video picture in a sequence of video pictures, and encode the processing block into a coded picture that is part of a coded video sequence. In an example, the video encoder (603) is used in the place of the video encoder (303) in the FIG. 3 example.

In an HEVC example, the video encoder (603) receives a matrix of sample values for a processing block, such as a prediction block of 8×8 samples, and the like. The video encoder (603) determines whether the processing block is best coded using intra mode, inter mode, or bi-prediction mode using, for example, rate-distortion optimization. When the processing block is to be coded in intra mode, the video encoder (603) may use an intra prediction technique to encode the processing block into the coded picture; and when the processing block is to be coded in inter mode or bi-prediction mode, the video encoder (603) may use an inter prediction or bi-prediction technique, respectively, to encode the processing block into the coded picture. In certain video coding technologies, merge mode can be an inter picture prediction submode where the motion vector is derived from one or more motion vector predictors without the benefit of a coded motion vector component outside the predictors. In certain other video coding technologies, a motion vector component applicable to the subject block may be present. In an example, the video encoder (603) includes other components, such as a mode decision module (not shown) to determine the mode of the processing blocks.

In the FIG. 6 example, the video encoder (603) includes the inter encoder (630), an intra encoder (622), a residue calculator (623), a switch (626), a residue encoder (624), a general controller (621), and an entropy encoder (625) coupled together as shown in FIG. 6.

The inter encoder (630) is configured to receive the samples of the current block (e.g., a processing block), compare the block to one or more reference blocks in reference pictures (e.g., blocks in previous pictures and later pictures), generate inter prediction information (e.g., description of redundant information according to inter encoding technique, motion vectors, merge mode information), and calculate inter prediction results (e.g., predicted block) based on the inter prediction information using any suitable technique. In some examples, the reference pictures are decoded reference pictures that are decoded based on the encoded video information.

The intra encoder (622) is configured to receive the samples of the current block (e.g., a processing block), in some cases compare the block to blocks already coded in the same picture, generate quantized coefficients after transform, and in some cases also intra prediction information (e.g., an intra prediction direction information according to one or more intra encoding techniques). In an example, the intra encoder (622) also calculates intra prediction results (e.g., predicted block) based on the intra prediction information and reference blocks in the same picture.

The general controller (621) is configured to determine general control data and control other components of the video encoder (603) based on the general control data. In an example, the general controller (621) determines the mode of the block, and provides a control signal to the switch (626) based on the mode. For example, when the mode is the intra mode, the general controller (621) controls the switch (626) to select the intra mode result for use by the residue calculator (623), and controls the entropy encoder (625) to select the intra prediction information and include the intra prediction information in the bit stream; and when the mode is the inter mode, the general controller (621) controls the switch (626) to select the inter prediction result for use by the residue calculator (623), and controls the entropy encoder (625) to select the inter prediction information and include the inter prediction information in the bit stream.

The residue calculator (623) is configured to calculate a difference (residue data) between the received block and prediction results selected from the intra encoder (622) or the inter encoder (630). The residue encoder (624) is configured to operate based on the residue data to encode the residue data to generate the transform coefficients. In an example, the residue encoder (624) is configured to convert the residue data in the frequency domain, and generate the transform coefficients. The transform coefficients are then subject to quantization processing to obtain quantized transform coefficients. In various embodiments, the video encoder (603) also includes a residue decoder (628). The residue decoder (628) is configured to perform inverse-transform, and generate the decoded residue data. The decoded residue data can be suitably used by the intra encoder (622) and the inter encoder (630). For example, the inter encoder (630) can generate decoded blocks based on the decoded residue data and inter prediction information, and the intra encoder (622) can generate decoded blocks based on the decoded residue data and the intra prediction information. The decoded blocks are suitably processed to generate decoded pictures and the decoded pictures can be buffered in a memory circuit (not shown) and used as reference pictures in some examples.

The entropy encoder (625) is configured to format the bit stream to include the encoded block. The entropy encoder (625) is configured to include various information according to a suitable standard, such as the HEVC standard. In an example, the entropy encoder (625) is configured to include the general control data, the selected prediction information (e.g., intra prediction information or inter prediction information), the residue information, and other suitable information in the bit stream. Note that, according to the disclosed subject matter, when coding a block in the merge submode of either inter mode or bi-prediction mode, there is no residue information.

FIG. 7 shows a diagram of a video decoder (710) according to another embodiment of the disclosure. The video decoder (710) is configured to receive coded pictures that are part of a coded video sequence, and decode the coded pictures to generate reconstructed pictures. In an example, the video decoder (710) is used in the place of the video decoder (310) in the FIG. 3 example.

In the FIG. 7 example, the video decoder (710) includes an entropy decoder (771), an inter decoder (780), a residue decoder (773), a reconstruction module (774), and an intra decoder (772) coupled together as shown in FIG. 7.

The entropy decoder (771) can be configured to reconstruct, from the coded picture, certain symbols that represent the syntax elements of which the coded picture is made up. Such symbols can include, for example, the mode in which a block is coded (such as, for example, intra mode, inter mode, bi-predicted mode, the latter two in merge submode or another submode), prediction information (such as, for example, intra prediction information or inter prediction information) that can identify certain sample or metadata that is used for prediction by the intra decoder (772) or the inter decoder (780), respectively, residual information in the form of, for example, quantized transform coefficients, and the like. In an example, when the prediction mode is inter or bi-predicted mode, the inter prediction information is provided to the inter decoder (780), and when the prediction type is the intra prediction type, the intra prediction information is provided to the intra decoder (772). The residual information can be subject to inverse quantization and is provided to the residue decoder (773).

The inter decoder (780) is configured to receive the inter prediction information, and generate inter prediction results based on the inter prediction information.

The intra decoder (772) is configured to receive the intra prediction information, and generate prediction results based on the intra prediction information.

The residue decoder (773) is configured to perform inverse quantization to extract de-quantized transform coefficients, and process the de-quantized transform coefficients to convert the residual from the frequency domain to the spatial domain. The residue decoder (773) may also require certain control information (to include the Quantizer Parameter (QP)), and that information may be provided by the entropy decoder (771) (data path not depicted as this may be low volume control information only).

The reconstruction module (774) is configured to combine, in the spatial domain, the residual as output by the residue decoder (773) and the prediction results (as output by the inter or intra prediction modules as the case may be) to form a reconstructed block, that may be part of the reconstructed picture, which in turn may be part of the reconstructed video. It is noted that other suitable operations, such as a deblocking operation and the like, can be performed to improve the visual quality.

It is noted that the video encoders (303), (503), and (603), and the video decoders (310), (410), and (710) can be implemented using any suitable technique. In an embodiment, the video encoders (303), (503), and (603), and the video decoders (310), (410), and (710) can be implemented using one or more integrated circuits. In another embodiment, the video encoders (303), (503), and (503), and the video decoders (310), (410), and (710) can be implemented using one or more processors that execute software instructions.

Aspects of the disclosure provide techniques to simplify affine motion compensation with prediction offsets.

FIG. 8 shows an example of merge mode with five candidate positions. In HEVC, a merge mode for inter-picture prediction is introduced. If a merge flag (including skip flag) is signaled as true, a merge index is then signaled to indicate which candidate in merge candidate list will be used to indicate the motion vectors of the current block. At the decoder side, a merge candidate list is constructed based on spatial and temporal neighbors of the current block. As shown in FIG. 8, up to four spatially neighboring MVs are added into merge candidate lists. In addition, up to one MV from temporal neighbors of the current block is added to the list. From those candidate positions, a set of merge candidates can be selected to construct a merge candidate list. In FIG. 8, a current block (810) is to be processed with merge mode. A set of candidate positions {A1, B1, B0, A0, B2, C0, C1} are defined for the merge mode processing. Specifically, candidate positions {A1, B1, B0, A0, B2} are spatial candidate positions that represent positions of candidate blocks in the same picture as the current block (810). In contrast, candidate positions {C0, C1} are temporal candidate positions that represent positions of candidate blocks that are in another coded picture or overlap a co-located block of the current block (810). As shown, the candidate position C1 can be located near (e.g., adjacent to) a center of the current block (810).

In some embodiments, frame-rate up-conversion (FRUC) techniques can be used in a specific merge mode that is referred to as a FRUC merge mode. FRUC merge mode is a special merge mode based on frame-rate up conversion techniques. In the FRUC merge mode, in some embodiments, motion information of a current block is not signaled but derived at decoder side. Moreover, MV of the current block is refined from several starting points which are derived from neighboring MVs.

In an embodiment, a FRUC flag is signaled for a CU from the encoder side to the decoder side when the FRUC flag is true (i.e., FRUC merge mode is used). When the FRUC flag is false (i.e., FRUC merge mode is not used), a merge index is signaled and the regular merge mode is used. When the FRUC flag is true, an additional FRUC mode flag is signaled to indicate which method (bilateral matching or template matching) is to be used to derive motion information for the CU. In other embodiments, the FRUC flag is signaled with a first value (e.g., “1”) indicating that FRUC merge mode is used, and second value (e.g., “0”) indicating that FRUC merge mode is not used. When the FRUC flag is the first value, an additional FRUC mode flag is signaled to indicate which method (bilateral matching or template matching) is to be used to derive motion information for the CU.

In some embodiments, motion derivation process in the FRUC merge mode includes two steps. In the first step, a CU-level motion search is performed, and then in the second step, a sub-CU level motion refinement is performed. In an embodiment, at the CU level, an initial motion vector is derived for the whole CU based on bilateral matching or template matching. For example, a list of MV candidates is generated and the candidate which leads to the minimum matching cost is selected as the starting point for further CU level refinement. Then, as part of the CU-level motion search in the first step, a local search based on bilateral matching or template matching around the starting point is performed and the MV result in the minimum matching cost is chosen as the MV for the whole CU as the derived CU motion vector(s). Subsequently in the second step, the motion information is further refined at the sub-CU level with the derived CU motion vector(s) in the first step as the starting point(s).

For example, the following derivation process is performed for a W×H CU motion information derivation, where W is a width of the CU, and H is a height of the CU. At the first stage, MV for the whole W×H CU is derived. At the second stage, the CU is further split into M×M sub-CUs. The value of M may be calculated, as shown in Eq. 1, where D is a predefined splitting depth which is set to 3 by default in the Joint exploration model (JEM). Then the MV for each sub-CU is derived.

$\begin{matrix} {M = {\max\left\{ {4,{\min\left\{ {\frac{W}{2^{D}},\frac{H}{2^{D}}} \right\}}} \right.}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{11mu} 1} \end{matrix}$

FIG. 9 shows an example of bilateral matching according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 9, the bilateral matching may be used to derive motion information of the current CU (910) (in a current picture Cur Pic) by finding the closest match between two blocks (920) and (930) along the motion trajectory of the current CU (910) in two different reference pictures (Ref0 and Ref1). Under the assumption of continuous motion trajectory, the motion vectors MV0 and MV1 pointing to the two reference blocks (920) and (930) shall be proportional to the temporal distances, i.e., TD0 and TD1, between the current picture (Cur Pic) and the two reference pictures (Ref0 and Ref1). As a special case, when the current picture is temporally between the two reference pictures and the temporal distance from the current picture (Cur Pic) to the two reference pictures (Ref0 and Ref1) is the same, the bilateral matching becomes mirror based bi-directional MV.

FIG. 10 shows an example of template matching (TM) according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 10, template matching is used to derive motion information of the current CU (1010) by finding the closest match between a template (including a top/above and a left neighboring blocks (1020) and (1030) of the current CU (1010)) in the current picture (Cur Pic) and blocks (1040) and (1050) (same shape and size as the template) in a reference picture (Ref0).

Template matching may also be applied to an advanced motion vector prediction (AMVP) mode besides the aforementioned FRUC merge mode. In JEM and HEVC, the AMVP mode uses two candidates. In an example, the AMVP candidate list includes a first existing AMVP candidate and a second existing AMVP candidate. A new candidate may be derived using the template matching method. If the newly derived candidate by the template matching is different from the first existing AMVP candidate, the newly derived candidate may be inserted at the very beginning of the AMVP candidate list and then the list size is set to two (e.g., meaning the second existing AMVP candidate is removed). In an example, when the template matching is applied to AMVP mode, only CU level search is applied.

In some embodiments, when using the bilateral matching, each valid MV of a merge candidate is used as an input to generate a MV pair with the assumption of bilateral matching. For example, one valid MV of a merge candidate is (MVa, refa) at reference list A. Then the reference picture refb of its paired bilateral MV is found in the other reference list B so that refa and refb are temporally at different sides of the current picture. If such a refb is not available in reference list B, refb is determined as a reference which is different from refa, and its temporal distance to the current picture is the smallest distance in list B. After refb is determined, MVb is derived by scaling MVa based on the temporal distance between the current picture and refa, refb.

In some examples, when FRUC is applied in the AMVP mode, the original AMVP candidates are also added to a CU level MV candidate set. In an example, at the CU level, up to 15 MVs for AMVP CUs and up to 13 MVs for merge CUs are added to the candidate list.

In some embodiments, when a motion vector points to a fractional sample position, motion compensated interpolation is needed. In an example, to reduce complexity, bi-linear interpolation instead of regular 8-tap HEVC interpolation is used for both bilateral matching and template matching.

In some embodiments, at different steps, the calculation for determining the matching cost is different. In an example, when selecting the candidate from the candidate set at the CU level, the matching cost is calculated using the sum of the absolute difference (SAD) of bilateral matching or template matching. After the starting MV is determined, the matching cost C of bilateral matching at sub-CU level search is calculated as shown in Eq. 2: C=SAD+w·(|MV_(x)−MV_(x) ^(s)|+|MV_(y)−MV_(y) ^(s)|)  Eq. 2 where w denotes a weighting factor which is empirically set to 4, and MV and MV^(s) denote the current MV and the starting MV, respectively. SAD may still be used for determining the matching cost of template matching at sub-CU level search.

In some examples, in the FRUC merge mode, MV is derived by using luma samples only. The derived motion information will be used for both luma and chroma for motion compensation (MC) inter prediction. After MV is decided, final MC may be performed using 8-taps interpolation filter for luma samples and 4-taps interpolation filter for chroma samples.

It is noted that MV refinement is a pattern-based MV search with the criterion of bilateral matching cost or template matching cost. In some examples, when two search patterns are supported, the first one is an unrestricted center-biased diamond search (UCBDS) and the second one is an adaptive cross search for MV refinement at the CU level and sub-CU level, respectively. For both CU and sub-CU level MV refinement, the MV is directly searched at quarter luma sample MV accuracy, and then followed by one-eighth luma sample MV refinement. The search range of MV refinement for the CU and sub-CU step is set equal to 8 luma samples.

According to some embodiments, decoder side motion vector refinement (DMVR) is used to improve/refine MV based on starting points.

In some examples, in the case of bi-prediction operation, for the prediction of a block region, two prediction blocks, formed respectively using a MV0 of a first candidate list list0 and a MV1 of a second candidate list list1, are combined to form a single prediction signal that is referred to as a bilateral template. In the DMVR method, the two motion vectors MV0 and MV1 of the bi-prediction may be further refined by a bilateral template matching process. The bilateral template matching applied in the decoder performs a distortion-based search between the bilateral template and the reconstruction samples in the reference pictures, and obtains a refined MV without transmission of additional motion information.

FIG. 11 shows examples of a general pipeline structure and a pipeline delay structure caused by template matching.

Conventional template matching schemes may be performed by accessing the reconstructed neighboring block, thus leading to pipeline delay as shown in FIG. 11. Specifically, the prefetching of reference samples is delayed until the reconstruction of the previous block is finished, causing cumulative pipeline delay.

To mitigate the disadvantageous pipeline delay, a restricted template region has been previously proposed in JVET-K0093. This method selectively chooses a template region to reduce the pipeline delay based on the following two strategies.

(a) A template region cannot be chosen from some of the pervious blocks.

(b) Instead of two template regions (above and left), only one region (either above or left) is chosen. In other words, template region belonging to the previous block is not considered to calculate the cost.

However, the above-described restricted template matching scheme is disadvantageous because this scheme is too strict using either the left or top reconstructed pixels/samples, which degrades the coding efficiency of template matching. Embodiments of the present disclosure introduce a method and an apparatus that may relax the restricted template matching and improve the coding efficiency of the template matching process.

FIG. 12 shows an example of DMVR that is based on bilateral template matching. In DMVR, in some embodiments, the bilateral template (1240) is generated as the weighted combination (i.e., average) of the two prediction blocks (1220) and (1230), from the initial MV0 of the first candidate list list0 and MV1 of the second candidate list list1, respectively, as shown in FIG. 12. The template matching operation may include calculating cost measures between the generated template (1240) and the sample region (around the initial prediction block) in the reference pictures Ref0 and Ref1. For each of the two reference pictures Ref0 and Ref1, the MV that yields the minimum template cost is considered as the updated MV of that list to replace the original MV. For example, MV0′ replaces MV0, and MV1′ replaces MV1. In some examples, nine MV candidates are searched for each list. The nine MV candidates include the original MV and 8 surrounding MVs with one luma sample offset to the original MV in either the horizontal or vertical direction, or both. The two new MVs (i.e., MV0‘ and MV1’), as shown in FIG. 12, may be used for generating the final bi-prediction results for the current block. A sum of absolute differences (SAD) may be used as the cost measure.

In some examples, DMVR is applied for the merge mode of bi-prediction with one MV from a reference picture in the past and another MV from a reference picture in the future, without the transmission of additional syntax elements.

FIGS. 13A and 13B show examples of spatial relationship between a current block and previous blocks of the current block with a decoding order from 0 to 3. The decoding order is known by both the encoder and the decoder. When decoding the current block, the MVs of the current block's spatial neighbors may be used as predictors for decoding the MV of the current block. In the FIG. 13B example, MVs from blocks 0, 1, 2 are predictor candidates for block 3.

As described above, the restricted template matching scheme constrains the neighboring regions used in template matching to reduce the pipeline latency. Specifically, only the left or the above template may be used in the restricted template matching scheme. However, the restricted template matching is too strict and degrades the coding efficiency of template matching. Thus, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the constrained neighboring regions in template matching may be used when decoder-side motion derivation (DMVD) is applied to the current block for reconstruction.

In some embodiments, the term block may be interpreted as a prediction block, a coding block, or a coding unit, i.e. CU. Moreover, the previously predicted or coded block Blk_prev may be defined as the block which is coded immediately before the current block BIk_cur in a coding order.

In some embodiments, constrained neighboring regions for template matching may be used for DMVD in Blk_cur. That is, the reconstruction samples of Blk_prev are not used in template matching for Blk_cur. The template in the neighboring blocks other than Blk_prev may be used in template matching. Thus, advantageously, the prefetching of reference samples does not need to wait until the reconstruction of the previous block is finished, and a larger area of the template may be used in template matching. As a result, the pipeline delay is reduced and the coding efficiency is improved. Specifically, when the template from the neighboring blocks overlaps with Blk_prev, the overlapped region may be marked as unavailable in template matching. The template here may be the same as the template described in FIG. 10.

In one embodiment, a size of the template used in template matching is reduced so that the template does not include the unavailable region. One of the left or above template may be partially unavailable, or may be entirely unavailable, but the left and above templates may not be both unavailable except at the left/top picture/slice/tile/WPP unit boundary. An exemplary template using left and above neighboring blocks with an unavailable region is illustrated in FIG. 14, where a size of Blk_cur (1440) is 16×16, and a size of Blk_prev (1430) is 16×8. The template (1410) includes the above 16×4 region and the top left 4×8 region. The above 16×4 region is entirely available, but the left 4×16 region has only the top 4×8 available and the bottom 4×8 region (1420) is unavailable. The bottom 4×8 region (1420) is marked as unavailable because this region overlaps with Blk_prev (1430). The region (1450) above Blk_prev includes the top left 4×8 region of the template (1410) and may be a block coded prior to Blk_prev. The region (1450) above Blk_prev may have the same size as Blk_prev. Therefore, the reconstruction samples/pixels of the bottom 4×8 unavailable region (1420) may not be used in the template matching to derive motion information of Blk_cur.

In one embodiment, when the left/above template is partially unavailable, the reference samples in the unavailable region may be generated from the remaining areas of the template by padding or extrapolation.

The padding may be achieved by duplicating the pixels at the template edge between the available template region and the unavailable template region until the whole area of a template is filled. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, the bottom 4×8 area in Blk_prev is unavailable. This unavailable region may be padded by duplicating the bottom row of the top 4×8 available region of the left template. In another example, when the above template is partially unavailable, the unavailable region is padded by duplicating the right column of the available region of the above template.

The padding may be achieved by assigning the mean of the pixel values in the adjacent available template region. For example, in FIG. 14, the pixel values in the unavailable 4×8 region is set as the mean pixel value in the top 4×8 region of the left template.

In some embodiments, the constraints (i.e., template matching does not use the reconstruction samples of the unavailable region) used for template matching may be relaxed or removed under certain conditions. Whether the constraints are relaxed, and how to relax the constraints, may be signaled with different indexes or modes in a bitstream, such as in a sequence parameter set (SPS), a picture parameter set (PPS), or a slice header. For example, a flag/indicator may be signaled in a SPS, a PPS, or a slice header in a bitstream, and the flag may indicate whether a candidate motion vector generated using template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the available region of the template and the unavailable region of the template. In other words, the flag may indicate whether the template excludes a region that overlaps with Blk-prev.

In one embodiment, if Blk_prev is an intra coded block, the reconstruction samples of Blk_prev may be used in the template matching for BIk_cur. In another embodiment, when the prediction (intra prediction, or inter prediction, or both) information instead of reconstruction samples of Blk_prev is used in the template matching for BIk_cur, the prediction samples of Blk_prev may be used in the template matching for Blk_cur. In another embodiment, if Blk_prev is an inter-coded block, and it is not coded with a decoder-side motion vector derivation/refinement mode, the prediction information of Blk_prev may be used in the template matching for Blk_cur.

In some embodiments, the constraints used for template matching may be relaxed or removed without signaling any additional flag/indicator. For example, the reconstruction samples of Blk_prev may be used in the template matching for BIk_cur when constrained intra predication is disabled. In some embodiments, constrained intra prediction is an intra prediction technique where video encoder limits the use of neighboring blocks as reference blocks in the intra prediction process. In other words, intra prediction is not allowed to use inter blocks as reference blocks. Instead, intra prediction only uses intra coded blocks as reference blocks. When constrained intra prediction is disabled, intra prediction can use both intra and inter coded blocks as reference blocks for reconstruction. In another example, the reconstruction samples of Blk_prev may be used in the template matching for BIk_cur when the left template, if it exists, is from a first CTU other than the current CTU/slice/tile, and the above template, if it exists, is also from a second CTU other than the current CTU/slice/tile.

In some embodiments, cost of template matching is derived as Cost_TM=w_left*Cost_TM_left+w_above*Cost_TM_above, where Cost_TM_left and Cost_TM_above are the costs by using the template only from the left and above neighboring block, respectively. W_left and w_above are the weights associated with Cost_TM_left and Cost_TM_above, respectively. When only the left template is used in template matching, w_above may be inferred as zero. Similarly, when only the above template is used in template matching, w_left may be inferred as zero. When w_above and w_left are not inferred, w_left and w_above may be determined using any one of a combination of the following methods.

(a) w_left and w_above are two pre-determined fixed numbers, and may or may not be equal. Alternatively, w_left and w_above may be signaled in a bitstream such as in a SPS, a PPS, or a slice header.

(b) w_left is inversely proportional to a ratio of r_1, which corresponds to the area of the left template, and w_above is inversely proportional to a ratio of r_2, which corresponds to the area of the above template. In an embodiment, r_1 and r_2 are two pre-determined fixed numbers, and may or may not be equal. Referring to FIG. 14, a size of Blk_cur is 16×16, and a size of Blk_prev is 16×8. The typical template size of the left and above templates are 8×4=32 and 16×4=64, respectively. Therefore, w_left=r_1 and w_top=r_2/2.

FIG. 15 shows a flow chart outlining a process (1500) according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The process (1500) can be executed by processing circuitry, such as the processing circuitry in the terminal devices (210), (220), (230) and (240), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the video encoder (303), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the video decoder (310), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the video decoder (410), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the video encoder (503), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the predictor (535), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the inter encoder (630), the processing circuitry that performs functions of the inter decoder (780), and the like. In some embodiments, the process (900) is implemented in software instructions, thus when the processing circuitry executes the software instructions, the processing circuitry performs the process (1500). The process may start at (S1510).

At (S1510), a coded video bit stream is received. The coded video bit stream includes a block, such as the block described above with respect to FIG. 14. The block may be a coding unit, coding block, or a prediction unit. For example, Blk_cur (1440) in FIG. 14 in a coded bit stream may be received.

At (S1520), a template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream is determined in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction. For example, the template may be determined to be the above and left neighboring blocks of the current block, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 14. In FIG. 14, the template of Blk_cur (1440) may be determined to be the above 16×4 region and left 4×16 region when DMVD is applied to BIk_cur (1440) for reconstruction. However, the size of the template may be adjusted based on the location and the size of Blk_prev (1430) in the following steps.

At (S1530), a first region of the template is determined to overlap with a second block that is decoded prior to the first block. The first region may be determined to be the unavailable region (1420) described in FIG. 14 because the first region overlaps with Blk_prev (1430), which is coded prior to Blk_cur (1440).

At (S1540), a second region of the template is determined by subtracting the first region from the template. The second region may be the available region described in FIG. 14. Referring to FIG. 14, the second region may be determined by subtracting the first region (i.e., the unavailable region) from the template. Therefore, the second region may be the template (1410) in FIG. 14 and a size of the second region may be smaller than the template determined at (S1520).

At (S1550), motion information of the first block is derived using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region. Referring to FIG. 14, the motion information of Blk_cur (1440) may be derived using template matching based on reconstructions samples of the template (1410). In an embodiment, the reconstructions samples of the unavailable region (1420) are not used to derive the motion information of Blk_cur (1440). The process (1500) then stops.

The techniques described above, can be implemented as computer software using computer-readable instructions and physically stored in one or more computer-readable media. For example, FIG. 16 shows a computer system suitable for implementing certain embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.

The computer software can be coded using any suitable machine code or computer language, that may be subject to assembly, compilation, linking, or like mechanisms to create code comprising instructions that can be executed directly, or through interpretation, micro-code execution, and the like, by one or more computer central processing units (CPUs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and the like.

The instructions can be executed on various types of computers or components thereof, including, for example, personal computers, tablet computers, servers, smartphones, gaming devices, internet of things devices, and the like.

The components shown in FIG. 16 for the computer system are exemplary in nature and are not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the computer software implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Neither should the configuration of components be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of the computer system.

The computer system may include certain human interface input devices. Such a human interface input device may be responsive to input by one or more human users through, for example, tactile input (such as: keystrokes, swipes, data glove movements), audio input (such as: voice, clapping), visual input (such as: gestures), olfactory input (not depicted). The human interface devices can also be used to capture certain media not necessarily directly related to conscious input by a human, such as audio (such as: speech, music, ambient sound), images (such as: scanned images, photographic images obtain from a still image camera), video (such as two-dimensional video, three-dimensional video including stereoscopic video).

Input human interface devices may include one or more of (only one of each depicted): keyboard (1601), mouse (1602), trackpad (1603), touch screen (1610), data-glove (not shown), joystick (1605), microphone (1606), scanner (1607), camera (1608).

The computer system may also include certain human interface output devices. Such human interface output devices may be stimulating the senses of one or more human users through, for example, tactile output, sound, light, and smell/taste. Such human interface output devices may include tactile output devices (for example tactile feedback by the touch-screen (1610), data-glove (not shown), or joystick (1605), but there can also be tactile feedback devices that do not serve as input devices), audio output devices (such as: speakers (1609), headphones (not depicted)), visual output devices (such as screens (1610) to include CRT screens, LCD screens, plasma screens, OLED screens, each with or without touch-screen input capability, each with or without tactile feedback capability-some of which may be capable to output two dimensional visual output or more than three dimensional output through means such as stereographic output; virtual-reality glasses (not depicted), holographic displays and smoke tanks (not depicted)), and printers (not depicted).

The computer system can also include human accessible storage devices and their associated media such as optical media including CD/DVD ROM/RW (1620) with CD/DVD or the like media (1621), thumb-drive (1622), removable hard drive or solid state drive (1623), legacy magnetic media such as tape and floppy disc (not depicted), specialized ROM/ASIC/PLD based devices such as security dongles (not depicted), and the like.

Those skilled in the art should also understand that term “computer readable media” as used in connection with the presently disclosed subject matter does not encompass transmission media, carrier waves, or other transitory signals.

The computer system can also include an interface to one or more communication networks. Networks can for example be wireless, wireline, optical. Networks can further be local, wide-area, metropolitan, vehicular and industrial, real-time, delay-tolerant, and so on. Examples of networks include local area networks such as Ethernet, wireless LANs, cellular networks to include GSM, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE and the like, TV wireline or wireless wide area digital networks to include cable TV, satellite TV, and terrestrial broadcast TV, vehicular and industrial to include CANBus, and so forth. Certain networks commonly require external network interface adapters that attached to certain general purpose data ports or peripheral buses (1649) (such as, for example USB ports of the computer system; others are commonly integrated into the core of the computer system by attachment to a system bus as described below (for example Ethernet interface into a PC computer system or cellular network interface into a smartphone computer system). Using any of these networks, computer system can communicate with other entities. Such communication can be uni-directional, receive only (for example, broadcast TV), uni-directional send-only (for example CANbus to certain CANbus devices), or bi-directional, for example to other computer systems using local or wide area digital networks. Certain protocols and protocol stacks can be used on each of those networks and network interfaces as described above.

Aforementioned human interface devices, human-accessible storage devices, and network interfaces can be attached to a core (1640) of the computer system.

The core (1640) can include one or more Central Processing Units (CPU) (1641), Graphics Processing Units (GPU) (1642), specialized programmable processing units in the form of Field Programmable Gate Areas (FPGA) (1643), hardware accelerators for certain tasks (1644), and so forth. These devices, along with Read-only memory (ROM) (1645), Random-access memory (1646), internal mass storage such as internal non-user accessible hard drives, SSDs, and the like (1647), may be connected through a system bus (1648). In some computer systems, the system bus (1648) can be accessible in the form of one or more physical plugs to enable extensions by additional CPUs, GPU, and the like. The peripheral devices can be attached either directly to the core's system bus (1648), or through a peripheral bus (1649). Architectures for a peripheral bus include PCI, USB, and the like.

CPUs (1641), GPUs (1642), FPGAs (1643), and accelerators (1644) can execute certain instructions that, in combination, can make up the aforementioned computer code. That computer code can be stored in ROM (1645) or RAM (1646). Transitional data can be also be stored in RAM (1646), whereas permanent data can be stored for example, in the internal mass storage (1647). Fast storage and retrieve to any of the memory devices can be enabled through the use of cache memory, that can be closely associated with one or more CPU (1641), GPU (1642), mass storage (1647), ROM (1645), RAM (1646), and the like.

The computer readable media can have computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code can be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present disclosure, or they can be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts.

As an example and not by way of limitation, the computer system having architecture, and specifically the core (1640) can provide functionality as a result of processor(s) (including CPUs, GPUs, FPGA, accelerators, and the like) executing software embodied in one or more tangible, computer-readable media. Such computer-readable media can be media associated with user-accessible mass storage as introduced above, as well as certain storage of the core (1640) that are of non-transitory nature, such as core-internal mass storage (1647) or ROM (1645). The software implementing various embodiments of the present disclosure can be stored in such devices and executed by core (1640). A computer-readable medium can include one or more memory devices or chips, according to particular needs. The software can cause the core (1640) and specifically the processors therein (including CPU, GPU, FPGA, and the like) to execute particular processes or particular parts of particular processes described herein, including defining data structures stored in RAM (1646) and modifying such data structures according to the processes defined by the software. In addition or as an alternative, the computer system can provide functionality as a result of logic hardwired or otherwise embodied in a circuit (for example: accelerator (1644)), which can operate in place of or together with software to execute particular processes or particular parts of particular processes described herein. Reference to software can encompass logic, and vice versa, where appropriate. Reference to a computer-readable media can encompass a circuit (such as an integrated circuit (IC)) storing software for execution, a circuit embodying logic for execution, or both, where appropriate. The present disclosure encompasses any suitable combination of hardware and software.

Appendix A: Acronyms

JEM: joint exploration model

VVC: versatile video coding

BMS: benchmark set

MV: Motion Vector

HEVC: High Efficiency Video Coding

SEI: Supplementary Enhancement Information

VUI: Video Usability Information

GOPs: Groups of Pictures

TUs: Transform Units,

PUs: Prediction Units

CTUs: Coding Tree Units

CTBs: Coding Tree Blocks

PBs: Prediction Blocks

HRD: Hypothetical Reference Decoder

SNR: Signal Noise Ratio

CPUs: Central Processing Units

GPUs: Graphics Processing Units

CRT: Cathode Ray Tube

LCD: Liquid-Crystal Display

OLED: Organic Light-Emitting Diode

CD: Compact Disc

DVD: Digital Video Disc

ROM: Read-Only Memory

RAM: Random Access Memory

ASIC: Application-Specific Integrated Circuit

PLD: Programmable Logic Device

LAN: Local Area Network

GSM: Global System for Mobile communications

LTE: Long-Term Evolution

CANBus: Controller Area Network Bus

USB: Universal Serial Bus

PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect

FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Areas

SSD: solid-state drive

IC: Integrated Circuit

CU: Coding Unit

HMVP: History-based MVP

MVP: Motion vector predictor

TMVP: Temporal MVP

TPM: Triangular prediction mode

VTM: Versatile test model

TM: Template matching

DMVD: Decoder-side Motion Derivation

DMVR: Decoder-side Motion Refinement

FRUC: Frame-rate Up-conversion

SAD: Sum of Absolute Differences

While this disclosure has described several exemplary embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and various substitute equivalents, which fall within the scope of the disclosure. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems and methods which, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the disclosure and are thus within the spirit and scope thereof 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for video decoding in a decoder, comprising: receiving a coded bitstream; determining a template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction; determining a first region of the template that overlaps with a second block that is decoded prior to the first block; determining a second region of the template by subtracting the first region of the template that overlaps with the second block from the template; and deriving motion information of the first block using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region, wherein the first region and the second region of the template are adjacent to a same side of the first block.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the template matching does not use reconstruction samples of the first region to derive the motion information of the first block.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: reconstructing reconstruction samples of the first region of the template using padding or extrapolation.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an indicator in a sequence parameter set, a picture parameter set, or a slice header in the coded bitstream, wherein the indicator indicates whether a candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicator indicates that the candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on the reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that the second block is intra-coded.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicator indicates that the candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on the reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that prediction information of the second block is used for deriving the motion information of the first block.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second block is inter-coded and is not coded with a DMVD mode.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein a candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that constrained intra prediction is disabled.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the a candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that (i) a left portion of the template is in a first coding tree unit, slice, or tile, (ii) an upper portion of the template is in a second coding tree unit, slice or tile, and (iii) the first block is in a third coding three unit, slice or tile.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein a cost of performing template matching for the first block is calculated as: Cost_TM=w_left*Cost_TM_left+w_above*Cost_TM above, wherein Cost_TM_left is a cost using only a left portion of the template in the template matching, Cost_TM_above is a cost using only an upper portion of the template in the template matching, w_left is a first weight associated with Cost_TM_left, and w_above is a second weight associated with Cost_TM_above.
 11. An apparatus, comprising: processing circuitry configured to receive a coded bitstream, determine a template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction, determine a first region of the template that overlaps with a second block that is decoded prior to the first block, determine a second region of the template by subtracting the first region of the template that overlaps with the second block from the template, and derive motion information of the first block using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region, wherein the first region and the second region of the template are adjacent to a same side of the first block.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the template matching does not use reconstruction samples of the first region to derive the motion information of the first block.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to reconstruct reconstruction samples of the first region of the template using padding or extrapolation.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to receive an indicator in a sequence parameter set, a picture parameter set, or a slice header in the coded bitstream, and the indicator indicates whether a candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the indicator indicates that the candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on the reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that the second block is intra-coded.
 16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the indicator indicates that the candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on the reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that prediction information of the second block is used for deriving the motion information of the first block.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the second block is inter-coded and is not coded with a DMVD mode.
 18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein a candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that constrained intra prediction is disabled.
 19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein a candidate motion vector generated using the template matching is constructed based on reconstruction samples of both of the first region of the template and the second region of the template in response to a determination that (i) a left portion of the template is in a first coding tree unit, slice, or tile, (ii) an upper portion of the template is in a second coding tree unit, slice or tile, and (iii) the first block is in a third coding three unit, slice or tile.
 20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which when executed by a computer for video decoding cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising: receiving a coded bitstream; determining a template of a first block in a picture in the received coded bitstream in response to a determination that decoder-side motion vector derivation (DMVD) is applied to the first block for reconstruction; determining a first region of the template that overlaps with a second block that is decoded prior to the first block; determining a second region of the template by subtracting the first region of the template that overlaps with the second block from the template; and deriving motion information of the first block using template matching based on reconstruction samples of the second region, wherein the first region and the second region of the template are adjacent to a same side of the first block. 